“Yeah,” she replied before looking back at me. “I’ll meet you at the clinic downtown when they open,” she said before walking off.
I rubbed my face with both my hands, trying to think. Too much shit was happening at once. War with some unknown enemy. Adore and I were barely speaking, and now this bitch popping her ass up. Yeah, we fucked around, but there was something in my heart telling me he wasn’t mine. All we had in common was our complexion. I didn’t believe her. Not until I saw the numbers for myself. As she pulled off, I got one last glance at the little boy. Zhane’s ass needed something from me and that’s why she was showing up.
CHAPTER 8: ADORE
I had just gotten comfortable with my liquor, crab leg tray, and blunts. My music was playing through the speakers, and I had a nice little vibe going. My phone was going off like back-to-back. At first, I wanted to ignore it. I figured it was some work bullshit and didn’t want to be bothered up with it at the moment. I just wanted a minute to clear my head.
I figured it was one of the store managers blowing my phone up about inventory or one of the boys from one of the traps. But the shit kept buzzing. Message after message was coming through. Then the calls started. Two from Hollow, one from Love, and then a video message came from one of my runners. My stomach tightened because anytime muthafuckas were calling back to back, it was never good. I opened the first video. It was just them shooting dice. It wasn’t until the camera moved and I saw Zhane get out of an SUV.
I rushed to turn the volume up. Then another woman steps out of the truck with a toddler on her hip. My heart started beating faster. Another video came through of Whodie fussing saying that it wasn’t his son. Nigga mad with me, but he out here a whole daddy.
“So, this is what you on?” I said out loud as Love’s name came across my screen
“You saw it?” she asked immediately.
“Yeah, I saw that shit.”
“Adore, don’t jump to conclusions.”
“Jump to what conclusion?” I snapped. “The bitch literally said the kid was his.”
“You don’t know the full story yet.”
“You telling me he just randomly got a whole child walking around the streets and never mentioned it?”
Love didn’t respond.
“Whodie does not give me the dude to just abandon his child. I believe it’s more to the story.”
“I gotta go.” I hung up in her face.
Love be trying to counsel people all the time, and I wasn’t in the mood for that shit right now. Whodie walked around like me going on a date was the worst thing in the world. All while he had a child. My phone rang again. This time, it was the east side store manager. I answered immediately.
“What?”
“Adore, we got a problem.”
“What now? Ain’t Whodie out there?”
“The store just got shot up.”
My heart skipped.
“What the fuck? Anybody hurt?”
“It was a drive-by.”
“Whodie was hit.”
That’s all I heard before I started throwing something on. I hung up the phone and rushed out the door as I dialed Whodie’s number. When he didn’t answer, it only made me press the gas harder. I was about an hour away from the east side. Reaching for my phone again, I dialed Hollow’s number.
“I’m already on the way,” Hollow said.
He was closer than me.
“Thank you! I’m getting there as fast as I can.”
For my brother to no longer be in the streets, he kept a connection somewhere that he wasn’t willing to tell me. As pissed as I was with Whodie and him being a father, I wouldn’t wish harm on him. He was the only man that I loved since going through the heartbreak of Sosa.
